Caleb began to hear the sound of distant sirens, and soon police cars began to screech into the lot. Caleb stood over Kyle’s body and saw a pool of blood streaming from him, looking as vengeful in death as he had in life. Caleb felt a great sense of relief.
Suddenly, Kyle’s eyes opened wide.
Caleb stood there, frozen in shock, not comprehending what he was seeing.
Kyle jumped to his feet in one quick motion, and stood there, facing them, looking down at them. Caleb was too stunned to react.
Kyle grabbed each of them with each hand, and hoisted each high above his head as if they were nothing. He stared up at them.
“Next time,” Kyle seethed, grinning, “buy a bigger gun.”
Kyle pulled them back, swung them around, and threw them both, and Caleb felt himself flying through the air, going a good twenty feet before landing on the concrete, rolling again and again, bruised and scratched up. He rolled hard, and finally stopped when he banged into a tree.
Caleb lay there, his head pounding, ears ringing, feeling every bone in his body aching, with a vague sense that Sam was on the ground next to him. Caleb looked up and saw Kyle bearing down on them, marching down the steps, a devilish gleam in his eye.
“Now you’re going to die the hard way,” Kyle said.
Suddenly, a dozen police cars, sirens blaring, screeched up on the pavement, blocking the way between Kyle and Caleb and Sam, cutting Kyle off. Dozens of officers jumped out of the cars and raised their guns at Kyle.
“FREEZE!” they shouted.
Kyle ignored them, and they fired on him, again and again and again. It sounded like a warzone. Caleb watched Kyle take more lead than any creature possibly could. At times he stumbled back. But he never fell.
“Let’s go,” Caleb yelled out to Sam, lying a few feet away.
They scrambled to their feet and took off. Caleb wasn’t about to wait around to see what happened. He knew that creature was surrounded by enough cops to kill an army.
And he knew the cops didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Twenty Five
Sage felt a burning pain in his arms and legs as he struggled against the Askelon shackles, to no use. He hung there, on the huge Askelon cross, his arms bound on either side of them, his legs tied below, and looked out and saw thousands of his kind, more of his people than he’d ever seen gathered in one place, all swarming around the grand hall in Boldt Castle. It was an immense hall, hundreds of feet high, shaped in an arch, and they swarmed about in agitated chaos, some of them buzzing through the air, others pacing the ground, while Sage hung there, in the center, an object of display and scorn.
Sage felt so weak; he had been dragged from his recharging station before he’d had a chance to recover, and he felt himself dying. He knew his time had come. His only regret was that he wanted more time with Scarlet, or at least a chance to say goodbye. He thought of her showing up at their meeting place, and his not being there, and it broke his heart. He could only imagine how hurt she had been. She must have thought he had abandoned her; or worse, that he was already dead.
Sage leaned back and looked up and he saw the ceiling of the hall, tapered, and hundreds of feet high, he saw the hole through it, through which he saw the night sky, the stars, the crescent moon. It let in cool air through the place, and cooled down the frenetic swarming and buzzing of all his people. Sage saw the moon and knew his people still had a few days before the moon finished waning.
Sage looked back down and saw the angry faces of his people staring up at him as if he were the greatest villain. But he no longer cared. He cared not for himself, cared not for the burning pain in his arms and shoulders and legs. He knew they would torture him greatly, and he didn’t care about that, either. He cared only for Scarlet. He prayed that she was safe, far away from here. That none of his people would ever find her.
“SILENCE!” screamed a voice.
Slowly, the room quieted, as their leader slammed his long metal staff on the stone of the ancient castle again and again.
Soon, one could hear a pin drop, as the leader emerged from the crowd. Sage laid eyes on him: Octal. A man he hadn’t seen in years, twice as tall as the others, wearing a long scarlet cloak, and wielding the metal staff of Komber. He held the staff up, with its ancient crooked cross perched on the end of it, a cross said to be able to pierce and burn even the strongest foe, a mystical weapon feared by his kind, and wielded only by their leader.
Octal stepped forward, his translucent eyes burning through Sage as he stared at him with disapproval and condescension.
“You stand now before your people,” Octal’s dark voice boomed throughout the room, echoing off the halls, as he glared at Sage, “you, who had the chance to let us all live two thousand more years. Instead, we shall all die because of you. Have you any final words for yourself?”
Sage stared back with contempt, not having the energy to respond. He knew it wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
After a long silence, Octal scowled.
“You may have given up on life,” he said, “but we have not. It is too late for you now, but not for us. I’m going to be kind and give you one last chance. I’ll forgive your sins, and pardon you, and let you live, if you lead us to the girl. Give up her life, and save all of us, your family and brothers.”
“If you do not, your final days on this planet will be more grievous than you can imagine. We will torture you in ways you cannot imagine, and introduce you to a hell you’ve never known.”
There was an agitated buzzing throughout the crowd, a murmur of approval, as the leader stepped forward and raised the tip of his staff to Sage’s chest. As the staff came closer, Sage already felt the pain. He writhed in agony, groaning, turning his head away, the searing heat coming off it unbearable. Sage knew that when it touched his skin, he would experience pain unlike any he’d ever had. The tip of the crooked cross came closer.
“Tell us,” the leader said softly. “Where is she? Will you give her up for your family?”
Finally, Sage summoned the strength to look him in the eye.
“Never,” he replied. “You may do anything you wish to me. But I will never, ever, bring you to her.”
The crowd of thousands broke out into angry murmurs, and the leader grimaced, stepped forward, and raised the crooked cross right up to Sage’s chest, sticking it against it.
Sage shrieked as the cross seared his flesh, feeling a pain rip through his bones worse than anything he could ever have imagined. The leader held it there, grimacing, pushing it deeper and deeper, as Sage screamed, wanting his life to end, but determined to never give up Scarlet.
“I think you’ll come to find,” the leader said, pushing it deeper, “that you haven’t even begun to understand what pain means.”
Chapter Twenty Six
Caitlin sat in the passenger seat, holding onto the handle, as Caleb made a hard turn onto their street and pulled up to their house, screeching to a stop before it. Caitlin leaned forward and craned her neck, peering into their lit-up house, hoping beyond hope that Scarlet had returned.
It had been a whirlwind of a drive ever since the train station, where Caleb had picked her up. Caitlin had been speechless as Caleb, all bruised up, had filled her in on all that had happened with Kyle, with his escape, with the shooting in the high school and how lucky he was to be alive. Caitlin was both horrified and grateful that Caleb had not been killed. She had warned him to stay away from Kyle until she had discovered the weapon they needed – if she ever discovered it. He had not listened; she’d had a feeling that he would not.
Caitlin had filled him in, too, on her research, on the clues she had discovered, and on where she felt they needed to go next to solve this. Caleb had listened with rapt attention, and this time around he seemed to no longer be a skeptic, after all that had happened with Kyle. Now he had seen it with his own eyes; now he knew what they were dealing with. Now he hung on her every word and seemed all too willing to follow whatever leads she had.